My First Song!! Awww....

aidan_m

aidan_m

Budding Rock Star!
Hi People,

I'd appreciate views on my first home recording... After the recent demise of my band I decided to go it alone and this is my first attempt... All performaces and recording/production by little old me! Comments appreciated..



Recorded using pro tools m-powered on mac book pro.

Drum mics:
Mics used for the drums are:

Kik: Shure Beta 52
Snare Top: Shure SM57
Snare Bottom: Sennheiser clip on with 24 dB attenuator
Rack Tom: Sennheiser clip on
Floor Tom: Sennheiser clip on
OH1: MSH1 with a 12dB attenuator
OH2: MSH1 with a 12dB attenuator

Guitars:

All guitars were recorded using a Gibson Les Paul, bass was recorded using a Fender Precision. All guitars were recorded using a naiant DI directly into a SM Pro Audio PR8e preamp connected to an M-Audio firewire 1814 into Pro Tools M-Powered. Any guitar fx were done using Guitar Rig 2 and then recorded to new tracks.

Vocals:

Vocals were recorded using a Shure c606.
 
the lead at the beginning is really buried--definitely need to bring up the volume.
vox are pretty low too, but more so in the beginning than at the end.
i think the drums and guitar sound really good--nice snare sound. if the drums need anything, it's more presence in the kick and more attack in the toms.
guitars sound nice--i especially like the distorted guitars kicking in when the song gets "big." that's the best-produced part of the song imo. the clean picked guitar could sit in the mix better than it does (kinda fades here and there), but the tone is really nice and warm as is, so i'd hate to add any eq bite. i'd play with panning to bring it out.
overall, nice job! i like the song too--looking forward to hearing more from you. :)
 
Aidan,

I really like the songwriting. Production-wise the drums sound good. Alot of it sounds really muddy and undefined. It also doesn't sound like you are belting it out and are just holding it back (singing wise).

Neall
 
I like it. Drums sound very good. Maybe a wider panning of the gtrs would add to the dimensional feel. I like the gtr sound a lot at 1:05. Kind of a loose feel to the performance as far as intonation but it suits the song style. That said, if the highest notes of the vocal were a bit more in tune it'd add a lot to the impact of the song.
 
i love the drums and guitar. sounds like a good song. the vocals are a little muffled sounding and really burried on my speakers. what kind of mic did you use on vocals? sounds like a cheep radioshack mic. maby adding some reverb might help. or you might want to try redoing them.

but over all sounds like a good song.
 
The singing is awful on this. Sounds like the singer needs to get more into things. He is not hitting notes which is killing the song. The mix sounds too "smiley face" EQ'ed. The lead is buried.

The end rings Nirvana but what the hell.

The song seems friendly, I just can't really get to know it in it's current state.

Great first song!
 
I agree with Timothey re the panning.
Vocals remind me of J Masics of Dino Jr - as do some of the guitars - I quite like buried vox any pitchiness in the vox isn't any issue for me. I usually mix vocals as a melodic lead to a song but that's for others - my personal preference is to leave a bit of archaeology for the listener.
Drums are good - don't get any clickier in the bass drum though - fine line to walk!
The naiant DI seems to work really well. I have an MSH1 & really like it for a lot of stuff. You've not gone to overkill on Guitar rig so well done for your restraint.
You've done an excellent job of performer engineer on a 1st go take a couple of days away from the mix & then come back to it with fresh ears &, hopefully, a bunch of constructive ideas from the thread.
 
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i feel the same as everyone else, the vocals are buried, them buried deep too boss


kick has no presence

guitars need a comp, sometimes they sound low, sometimes too loud


very nice first song alot better than i can say about mine
welcome to the world of recording

btw i look forward to more of your recordings
 
Cheers for all the comments and tips and compliments people.

I hear ye on the buried vocals. .that's mostly down to me doing the singing and not being a singer just dabbled in backing in the past so need to build my confidence a bit and buy autotune! ;)

And intonation or gtr performance probs would be the same.. I'm a drummer trying to get on without my band!

Whoever said radioshack mic, you're not far off. used a shure c606 mic I used use for rehearsal..

And jamacian.."The singing is awful on this. "

You cut me deep mannn, you cut me deep!! ;)


Edit:
heres a remix taking in peoples comments, took off some low end off the bass, raised lead bit, raised main vox and took reverb off verses. panned overheads fully.. Lemme know!

Download: Show Me A Sign Remix
 
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aidan_m said:
And jamacian.."The singing is awful on this. "

You cut me deep mannn, you cut me deep!! ;)
Click to expand...
hehe, well at least you have a good attitude. look, forget about autotune and practice singing a lot more. Autotune is not going to make a great performance. Only a great performance can do that. Not sure how many times you tried to sing before you settled with this take but I suck at singing too and I often have to do over 20 takes....well over 20 takes to even get close to what I hear in my head.
 
hey man good song, i like it alot, i tought your vox was pretty good for a guy who says hes not a singer.... keep at it :)

open up a soundclick account its free

they way your uploading the song now takes me forever to download it

although its probably better quality
 
Remix sounds a whole helluvalot better! I really like that delay effect you have on the vocals during the chorus parts, what did you use for that?
 
Cheers again people.

pikingrin,
The delay is I think the digidesign medium delay that comes with pro tools m-powered.. Set up using send and return.
 
jamacian said:
hehe, well at least you have a good attitude. look, forget about autotune and practice singing a lot more. Autotune is not going to make a great performance. Only a great performance can do that. Not sure how many times you tried to sing before you settled with this take but I suck at singing too and I often have to do over 20 takes....well over 20 takes to even get close to what I hear in my head.
Click to expand...

Oh i have attitude! Don't you worry about that! ;) Now all I need is a voice!! Tried about 10 takes on this.. next song will be better I promise! :D
 
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